Torture

First of all .. making some goon think that they’re drowning is not torture. I’m not even sure that drowning someone is torture. That’s murder. Go ahead … Google the words “drowning” and “pleasant.” Doesn’t sound like torture to me. Also .. firing a gun near someone’s head or depriving them of sleep isn’t torture either. If it was there would be thousands of Marine Corps drill instructors and college professors who should be awaiting charges right now.

All of this moralistic grandstanding is starting to get on my last nerve … and there’s not all that many left. What a bunch of hogwash. Let’s try a little scenario here. No fudging. No “buts.” This is your scenario … if you don’t want to accept it as-is, then walk away.

Scenario: Your spouse and child have been kidnapped. They’ve been buried alive in a box. They have enough air and water to last a day or so. You have someone in your custody whom you know with absolute certainty can tell you where your family members are buried. Now .. what are you going to do to get the information you need to save your spouse and child. Don’t’ give me this “call the police and let them deal with it” scenario. You know that the police are bound by the rules … but are you? Will you put a washcloth over this person’s face and pour water on it? No? Will you point a gun at his head and tell him that he has seconds to live if he doesn’t give up the information? No? Would you start breaking this thugs fingers – one-by-one – until he gives you the information you need? No? Are you kidding me? Well … tell you what. Why don’t you call your spouse and children into the room right now and read this to them. Tell them that if was they who were buried in that box waiting to die that you wouldn’t torture someone to save their life. Tell them that this guy would walk away with every body part in tact .. no scratches .. no broken bones. You would do nothing to frighten this man into thinking that his life is in danger. Why you wouldn’t even poor water on his head. Tell your family members would just have to die before you would do anything closely related to torture to the man who had the information that could save their lives. Tell them that — and then live with the look in their eyes. Tell them that — and then live with the knowledge that they know what a wuss you are.

Me? I’m just not the nice reason you are. I can’t think of a single thing I would not do to this man if it would give me the information I need to save my wife and daughter. Get out the glass rods and the bamboo shoots. I’ll need some pliers and a blow torch as well. When it’s all over, and my family is save, I’ll let the jury decide.

3 Responses to “Torture”

And the police being bound by rules is a good thing. What I would do under these circumstances, and what I would tolerate my government doing, are to completely different things. It’s one thing to engage in actions on one’s own, and another thing entirely to condone such actions by a third party that you have no control over and does them behind closed doors where no one can see what they’re doing.

I’m entirely capable of torture under the circumstances described above, but I would never sanction my government doing it. Does that seem like a double standard? Or is it, perhaps, that I just don’t trust such a task to someone else?

It is interesting that you wouldn’t trust the government to do something in a direct attempt to protect your life, the lives of your family, and those of our troops (All three could be one and the same). However, the military is becoming less and less involved with the government. A good portion of congress is against anything military related, so, especially under our current administration, I would have to disagree with you.

Also, the president, congress, and the senate are supposed to protect those who put them in office. Since there is probable cause that the men we “torture” have information that would save those lives, our government does us a disservice by refusing to do what it takes to protect us. And those who are against harsh interrogation, well there’s the door. All America has to do is open it for them and hope it hits them on the way out.

Plus, torture and methods of gaining information are two different things. The purest sense of the word torture is to inflict pain for no reason at all. Just for the glee of it. Which, mind you, I wouldn’t mind doing to a few folks. 🙂